Without Her
by fanficfan444
Summary: AU Where Annabeth never ran from home when she was 7, we watch the effects that has on not only Percy's life, but Thalia's and Grovers and even Luke's, who we think we saw a bad side of before but if he never made that promise to Annabeth about family, how bad would it turn out in the end? would Kronos rise? T because im paranoid / everything belongs to the almighty Riordan!
1. Chapter 1

WITHOUT HER

MEETING

AU Where Annabeth never ran away from home, meaning Percy had no one, Thalia was still a tree, most of the quests never existed, Grover was missing looking for Pan, and Luke was well on schedule to become Kronos although without the influence of Annabeth in his life he was resorting to much more sinister things than poisoning Thalias tree this time around. With everyone on either side out for revenge then this war is bound to be a bloodbath. Who will become a hero? And who will die one?

Annabeth POV.

I had to get somewhere safe and fast. It was getting dark out and I could not shake the feeling that I was being followed. I twisted through the unfamiliar streets of new york, limping heavily, trying to get rid of the unsettled feeling in my stomach. I checked my purse, 23 dollars, a half empty pack of gum and a picture of my brothers to my name. The money would last me two days at most, the gum would only serve to make me hungry and the picture of my brothers was purely selfish. I would miss them with all my heart but they were not the ones being put down and made to feel guilty that these strange things keep happening. My dad and his whor- I mean wife made me out as a liar when I told them about the spiders because there were no visible marks. Like my terrified screams every night weren't enough.

I tried to even out my steps, I can't look suspicious limping like this, a barely sixteen year old on her own in the dangerous streets of new york. I had discretely stolen bandages from a pharmacy earlier so my wound was not showing any more. As I passed a heavily shadowed alley I stiffened, there was that _thing. _It must have followed me. I don't really know how to explain it, it was basically a hound bigger that a lion, and the only reason I had seen it standing there, barely two hundred metres away was the eyes, those luminous red eyes.

We both stood frozen, luckily I was in a less crowded part of the city and it was evening on a wednesday so not too much of a scene could be made, but then, who could help me? Whatever this thing was, only my father and me knew on the first meeting, when it tore a chunk from my leg. Everyone else who had been in the park had squealed at how cute a puppy it was. I couldn't run quick enough with my injury but I found my self not wanting to, I wanted to fight this thing, to make it pay for hurting me and turning my own father against me. But I had nothing to defend myself with whatsoever. I had taken self-defense and was the best at sports in my school despite being 1.a nerd) and 2. only 16 even though I'm a junior because I skipped a grade. Sadly though they didn't teach classes on how to kill red eyed lion-dog-things.

I quickly took in my surroundings and racked my brains for and answer but none came as the beast started to charge with incredible speed. There was simply no logical escape that could be solved, so I let my instincts take over.

In two bounds the hound was a mere few feet from me and in one more I knew I would be a goner, but my brain was on overdrive and I quickly calculated a high risk plan that was dependant on the exact right timing. As the thing took the final lunge that would close the distance between us I tensed my body, and just as I could smell the foul stench of the creature's breath, I all but threw myself to the floor and prayed to anyone at all that it missed me, that I was fast enough. I felt a sharp pain across my back but I was otherwise unscathed. My prediction was that the thing had made a last ditch swipe at me as I dropped and it's claw had caught my in the back.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to dwell on my new injury at the moment, instead opting for the survival route. Quicker than ever I rose unsteadily onto my feet adrenaline numbing the pain of my back and leg. I threw a glance over my shoulder to see that the monsterous dog had collided with a car on the street behind the alleyway. It was disoriented but clearly trying to get up for another run at me. Going with the most appealing idea to me of running the exact opposite way from it, down to the other side of the alley. I knew I had to do something about the creature on my tail or it would just keep coming but I had no idea how. No weapons, I couldn't hide my scent and I coulddn't run as fast even if I had two good legs. Nevertheless I kept charging down side streets and taking random turns just to put some distance between me and my pursuer.

And just as I thought I may be able to take a breather, catch my breath, of course I hear it bark with anger from what I judged to be only one street back. Growing hopeless, I made a rash decision and turned to the first opening that caught my eye, imbetween two apartment complex a thin strip that was closest. Just as in any dire situation, when you just act, I made the wrong decision out of desperation, this way was blocked by a wire fence that was barbed and too tall to climb in time. I made to run back out but came literally face to face with the ugly hound out for my blood.

Now, I would never call it clever what I did next but after hearing stories about sharks and rabid dogs I thought it was worth a try. Before the beast had time to react whatsoever I reached up and jabbed a finger in it eye. WRONG MOVE. The creature howled in pain and lashed wiith its paw sending my sprawling through the air and into a wall. Dark spots danced around my vision and the world tilted like it was trying to throw me off. The last thing I remember seeing before I lost consciousness was pair of beautiful sea-green eyes peering at me. As my eyes closed I was haunted by what I found in those vivid eyes, or maybe lack of what I found would be better because thats just it, those eyes held nothing in them, not love or hate or pain. They were the eyes of a dead person in the body of a living.

**Hello anyone who reads this! Im very new to fanfiction and this is my very first story. Please any constructive criticism is welcome. I felt it was important to start of in annabeths POV as shes crucial to the story but im a guy so I dont know if I did annabeth justice at all. No harsh comments please, thats no way to welcome the new guy. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey anyone reading this story, second chapters here, enjoy...hopefully.**

Percy's POV.

Two more weeks. Just two more weeks. That's it. Then I can go to camp, my real home. Not that I don't love staying at my mom's house. Its just, with the prophecy looming over my head, I gotta get prepared for it, and the only way I can do that is by going to camp and training non-stop. I don't see why I can't be a year round camper, and school finished last friday anyway, but my mom insists she doesn't see me enough so now I have two weeks with my mother and her fiancee Paul. Yay.

My life has been this way ever since I went on my first quest when I was 12, to find Zeus' masterbolt. The quest I invited Luke on, and he personally tried to throw me into Tartarus. When I got back from that very first one, I'd been in the attic to put away the items me and grover had recovered and being my curious 12 year old self, I'd been inspecting the Oracle of Delphi when I had found the scroll with the First Great Prophecy on it...

Since then, my life at Camp Half-blood has been eat, sleep, train, sometimes without the 'eat' part. I mean what would you do? Give up? No, if I'm dying for olympus i'm going to make sure I go fighting like a hero. Like Silena and Beckendorf who were targeted because they refused to spy on camp, or like Thalia when she made her stand against all those monster to protect Luke and Grover, and like countless others who Kronos' army either picked off on the way to camp or killed when monsters found an entrance into camp through the labrinth and we barely won. I would make sure that they didn't all die for nothing.

But training was still two weeks away. I was hoping that they would all mesh together into a blur and it would seem like five minutes from now I was back in the arena cutting head off dummies. Unfortunately life doesn't work that way and these two weeks would probably be the longest of my life.

My mom and Paul had decided they were having a day out just the two of them today, which really makes me wonder why I have to be here. Theres no getting out of it now, so better just find something to occupy myself. Being a demigod, cell phone signals basically broadcast my presence to any monsters in the area so I couldn't arrange to meet a friend from school, and all my other friends are probably already at camp. Oh well, looks like im in for yet another day of wondering new york city aimlessly until I get hungry. My days are really packed with fun when I'm away from camp aren't they? I glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall and found myself impressed that I'd slept most of the day away. It was 2:42 pm meaning that food places might be less busy than lunch time. Me and my teenage stomach. Sometimes I swear I only eat because theres nothing better to do. And its not like I have to worry about putting on weight when my everyday life is death defying.

Okay, so efectively killed about 4 hours, I judged this to be an appropriate time to head home as the chill in the air meant night fall was closing in. I let my thoughts wander to other things as I allowed my feet to carry my home. I thought of my two only friends at my school Goode High. There's Rachel and Trev although Trev is a satyr looking for other demigods so I don't know if he counts. And Rachel knows all about Camp Half-Blood because she's a clear sighted mortal and we met on my quest to save the Goddess Artemis. These two people I would consider my closest friends in the world and yet I still keep them at a distance. They can get hurt if they get too close and I don't let anyone close because then they can betray me or leave me like anyone else. At school im not by any means unpopular, on the contrary everyone knows me. They've all just learnt to keep their distance apart from the most persistent girls, not even seniors seem to be brave enough to pick fights anymore. But I'm happy like this, because I know who my real friends are because they made the effort to stick around. Rachels off on some exotic holiday for the rest of summer and Trev is back at camp after escorting some new half-blood there. So I'm all alone in Manhattan.

As I neared my apartment building, I was heading to the doors when I saw a blur from the corner of my eye going into the narrow side street to the left of my building. 'Just some kids messing about' I thought to myself, shaking off the suspicion. I was halfway threw the doorway when I saw an even larger blur. I whipped around, letting the door close and approached the side street causiously. At the the exact moment I had decided that my eyes were playing tricks on me a loud howl of pain came from just feet away at the entrance to the opening. The howl sounded like a normal dog but was so loud I could feel the vibrations through the floor.

Immediately after the howl finished there was a loud thump and a quiet feminine cry of pain that I only just made out. Uncapping riptide, I edged round the corner to see a hellhound stalking towards a teenage girl slumped against the brick wall. It didn't even notice me casually walk up to it and plunge my sword into its side. The monster made a futile attempt with it's paw to finish off the girl but it was already being swept away by as ash. I calmly capped riptide and spun towards the girl. She was quite obviously a demigod but the question was, did she know? And if so, was she a part of Kronos' army?

Upon inspection I realised two things, one being that I would be getting absolutely no answers now as she seemed to being loosing consciousness fast. The second thing I noticed was that this girl was immensely beautiful, with tanned,clear skin free of any make up and honey-blonde curled hair. I would assume she was a daughter of aphrodite and a typical california girl but her eyes proved both theories wrong. They were gray which would lead me to believe she was a child of athena, only her eyes seemed slightly more intense to me, they held the same intelligence but also had a fierceness to them that seemed intimidating even in the state she was in. Her jeans were ripped and frayed and had mud on them, her hair had what looked like both dirt and blood caked in it, and her face was dirty and sweaty like she'd run miles. In the back of my mind I briefly wondered if she was Aphrodite herself because no one could look this good whilst being so filthy. But then I remembered when I met aphrodite and how she was, yes out-of-this-world beautiful, somehow though I preferred this blonde because she was obviously not trying but and yet stunning. Wow Jackson, your so soppy, focus.

I knew first hand that I should not trust anyone and just because she looked so helpless I'm not going to treat her as anything but a suspect. Not that, if I trusted her she would get treated much better, my emotions have about 3 settings: sub zero,ice cold and cold. Cold being reserved for Rachel and Trev as my friends. I understand why people avoid me, really I do, sometimes I want to avoid me but I just cant bring myself to care when ultimately I could be dead in a few weeks.

Making a quick decision, I conclude that she can't be much danger when she's knocked out, can she? And I can see blood on her clothes which means she's injured, and my mom would rip my head off if she found that I'd left anybody in this condition. May aswell help her now, interrogate later. Why can't I be a mortal? They are so carefree and oblivious. Whereas I have to worry if a stranger could slit my throat. Yep, lucky me...

**Sooo they've met. Second chapter and still no speech but I'm just giving you the background, so that you guys know the characters differences. The story will sort of kick start from here now. Promise. Review please. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Right so the story should sort of kick in now I'm done introducing the POV's. Chapter 3 here we go** .

Annabeth POV.

When I come to, on a comfy mattress my brain immediately decides that I dreamed up all that craziness from the past few days and I'm going to open my eyes to my weird, dysfunctional life. Then the pain hits. And by the gods done it hurt. Did I just say gods? Never mind that now, why the hell does my head hurt so much? And my leg feels numb. Surprisingly though my back feels completely normal and OK. Groaning as the light hits my eyes, I find myself in a bedroom, not my bedroom a _blue _bedroom. That's really all I can say about it, the room itself is normal and not too messy, although judging by the socks and that slice of pizza on the floor I'd definitely say a boy lives here.

I throw the covers off to be hit by another realisation, these are not my clothes. I'm now wearing over my underwear, thankfully, a pair of what are meant to be tight black boxer shorts and an over-large, faded grey t-shirt. To be honest, while I'm a little creeped out that someone changed me, I am very grateful to be out of those muddy, filthy clothes I had on. My hair is still matted with blood from the wound on my back. I run my hand through it and nearly throw-up at the flakes of blood that come off.

This action somehow spurs me into motion, curious as to how bad my injuries are. My back seemed so bad before but now I can't feel a thing, and I don't even want to think about what my leg looks like. I didn't even treat it, just wrapped a bandage over the hole in my leg and took off from my family's new apartment. With all my courage I peel off the fresh bandage but am shocked by my findings. What was once a gruesome tare in my flesh is now a deep pink patch of skin, it will still be a permanent scar but its so much better than before, which lead me onto the question. How long was I out for?

I only hit my head, there's no way a wound that severe from that massive dog...where is that dog-focus Annabeth! The point is that my leg is healed and I'm judging the lack of pain in my back as a sign that it too has healed. None of this could have happened in mere hours and judging by the aching in my head and the lump I can feel, it has only been hours since I was thrown against that wall looking at- shit! Oh shit, green eyes, I've been abducted! I'm probably gonna get sold off to some European sex trafficker with my luck. I thought I was meant to be clever! Why did I let myself get in this situation?

The twist of the door knob breaks me from my thought-frenzy and I grab for the heaviest item in arms reach and turn towards that door. A guy about my age pokes his head threw the crack in the door probably trying not to disturb me and I feel the teenage girl part of me beg me to drop umbrella I'm holding like a baseball bat and pick up a camera instead to capture his face and treasure it forever. Fortunately, with my sensible brain that my dad says I inherited from my dead mother I grip the umbrella tighter and tense my muscles to swing. I narrow down two possible escape routes, one: fight past him and find wherever the front door is, two: distract him long enough to get to the window and then go down the fire esca-

"Oh your definitely an Athena kid."his voice makes me start slightly while a part of me takes record it to memory incase I meet him in the future and then I'll know to run from my captor. Another part of me focuses on the actual words he used. Athena kid? What?

"Am I supposed to know what that means?" I shoot back with a glare.

"Well I can see you analysing everything around you, although let me tell you I think your Athena siblings would be ashamed if they saw you here using an umbrella as a weapon" his eyes are teasing but in a cold way, like he's trying to embarrass me.

"Why do you keep saying that? Seriously who's Athena?" my voice has taken on that tone that people usually take as a cue to give me whatever I want and not make eye contact. The boy infront of me merely tilts his head, his magnificent green eyes contemplating something. Magnificent? I'm not gonna lie his eyes are seriously awesome but where did magnificent come from? Its like I'm turning into a 90 year old women who lives at home with her 9 cats. Stupid ADHD mind concentrate.

"Wow your either an amazing actor or you have no idea what I'm talking about, but from the fact that you look around 16 maybe 17 that's not likely unless your parent is minor but I don't think so." he muses.

"Okay you need to slow down. Why would I be "acting" like your I don't understand when you don't make any sense?!" I spit. He is _really_ irritating, I can just block out his face with my hatred for his personality.

He smirks at me and I decide that his mouth will be the first place I'm going to hit with this umbrella. "I don't know, why don't you tell me?"Arrrghh! Yep, if I hit him in the mouth he'll shut up.

"You know if someone asks you a question you answer, not reply with another question, its how a conversation keeps going." I try for a sweet innocent smile but it probably just looks like I'm baring my teeth at him.

"Hmm I do not know what to make of you" the boy said completely ignoring her last comment, "I mean, you seem like you genuinely don't know, but I'm definitely not going to trust you." the arrogant little shit scoffed at the thought.

Trust me? Him trust _me_? The nerve of this guy, he's taken me to god knows where, and he says that he cant trust _me! _No. Nope, nuh uh. No. my anger's at boiling point and I've barely decided to do it before I swing the umbrella round catching him off guard. Just as the umbrella is about to make contact with his face, just as I'm ready to hear the crack of his nose breaking. His hand comes up faster than possible and wrenches my weapon from my grasp. Seeing no other options I charge full force at him trying to get past, put for all my effort he's barely knocked back three steps, obviously he's got fast reflexes. My captor all but throws me back towards the bed and slowly advances.

I take that as a cue for plan B and smoothly hurdle the bed and heave open the window. I'm nearly through, I can taste freedom when two arms ensnare my waste, tight as boa constrictors and I'm dragged kicking, clawing, biting scratching back into the room. Back in california, before I got forced to new york with my dad's new job, I had taken self defence classes for a while and I deemed the situation I was in to be fit to use what little I had learnt in the short two months I had bothered to go. Twisting in his arms, I aimed my boney elbow for his gut effectively loosening his arms enough for me to twist around. I brought back my fist and sent it towards his face while he was still recovering. My punch landed on his left eye and his head flew back and I was suddenly free of his arms.

"Stop it! Please! Both of you!" a voice cried from the open door to the room. My captor straightened to look still clutching his face and I followed his gaze to see a middle-aged woman looking panicked at the doorway. She had long brown hair with an odd few gray's sprinkled in, her eyes were a deep blue and something about her cheek bones and eyebrows made me positive that she was -eyes mother. Now would be the perfect time to escape but something about this woman's tone made me pause, she looked and sound genuinely scared like she didn't want anyone hurt ever.

"Percy why are you two fighting?" Percy? So that's his name. The boy in question looked at the floor in shame at the reprimanding tone this lady used. Now I'm just confused. I was a captive right? Wrong. I'd never actually clarified that but hey don't judge I was preoccupied deciding an escape route. I felt like a complete idiot. I may not trust this guy, Percy, but just looking into his mother's navy eyes I felt safe. I know that it could be a trick and while I was still 2% wary, the facts pointed to them helping me, not kidnap. After all, my wounds were treated, and I was in fresh clothes.

Don't get me wrong, this is just as much Percy's fault for not explaining and starting off all hostile. If he'd just come in with a nice attitude and been pleasant, I would have dropped the umbrella and listened, well maybe not dropped...but lowered.

"Mom, I was talking and then she attacked me and then punched me and she bit my arm!" he whined showing off his various injuries. I smugly noted he missed out the four lines of blood where my nails raked down his right cheek.

" Hey!" I complain. He's trying to pin all this on me. "Mrs...errr... Percy's Mom, I realise now, like just 10 seconds what happened. It was a miss understanding on my part and a major misreading of the situation on your sons part. I'm sorry for causing you any stress." and I was, she just looked so innocent in her nighty and fluffy slippers.

"Jackson, its Mrs Jackson but you can call me sally." Percy's mother said, regarding me kindly like she didn't just see me attacking her son. " you seem to know what's going on dear. Please explain for my benefit as well as I'm sure Percy's."

" You see, Mrs Jackson, Percy here failed to read the situation that I was scared because I'd just woken up some place unfamiliar. I thought I'd been taken or something and then your son kept saying these strange things about someone called Athena? What you just witnessed was me trying to 'escape'." I ramble. I feel so silly explaining the kidnap part but she just inclines her head like she understands.

Just as it looks like she's going to reply her son pipes up in disbelief. "We're round the same age! You thought I at the ripe age of fifteen years old would kidnap somebody?!" he's angry but the only part of that speech I take in is the age of him. It shocks me, he looks older maybe 17?

"Percy!" his mother scolds "its perfectly understandable, we're complete strangers and you just waltz in probably asking who's side of the war she's on. The poor girls bound to get scared." she shoots me an exasperated look in apology for her son. Mean while I'm processing the fact what she said because it makes no sense. Her and her son both make no sense.

" I'm sorry, did you say war?" I ask incredulously. They both turn to look at me, neither providing an answer. Percy has suspicion all over his face while Sally just looks shocked. Then abruptly they turn to each other and start speaking about me as I'm not even here.

"She doesn't know? Does she even know what she is?" Mrs Jackson exclaims.

"I don't know for sure, either she had no idea at about anything until that hell-hound found her, or she's part of Kronos' army and is a great actor." Percy replies contemplatively.

I choose now to pipe up " Hell-hound? You mean that dog thing that's been chasing me for days?" I ask. " The one that attacked me and now the injuries are like healed remarkably fast."

Sally turns to me with a kind smile, " Yes dear, I'm afraid so, Percy killed that one but there are many worse things than a hell-hound. As for your wounds, your not wrong they have healed fast, Percy only found you about 14 hours ago, we gave you ambrosia and nectar."

I furrow my brow " Are they some kind of medicines?" I've never heard of them but I'm not exactly a doctor.

Percy regarded me coolly when he spoke, like he didn't care any more, "You could say that, its how we know for sure"

"Know what for sure?"

"That your a demi-god."

Ooooh so the secrets out, seriously though people, I'm not writing long A/Ns all I want is some reviews on whether or not to continue because I have some other ideas and I could just as easily be working on them. Please?


	4. Chapter 4

**Yo, seriously need reviews on this story guys, even if its negative, tell me! I actually want to know whether to continue. So review please. **

Percys POV.

" I'm a WHAT? No. No. No. No. No. I can't believe you fooled me! You did kidnap me didn't you? And your both crazy and your going to kill me and then sell me in a pie like that film Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp in." this was actually not the worst reaction to the news that I had seen. As she was rambling, the girl, who I'd learnt was called Annabeth from a library card in her purse, was slowly backing away and unfortunately for her my step-dad Paul chose then to walk in. Meaning that she turned to see him, just when she thought she could run. It would be funny in any other situation but the girl seemed quite distressed and also I'm not really one for laughter. Not much to laugh about in a world where my birthday present this year is pain with a side of possible death.

Paul merely ignored her, like this happened everyday which it didn't but stranger things did. He kissed Mom on the cheek and raised his cup of coffee towards in greeting. I nodded back.

I turned back to a suddenly calm Annabeth, which worried me but she seemed to be just studying Paul like she didn't know what to make of him. She seemed to have already judged everybody else and since he was the newest arrival she needed to decide on who the biggest threat was. From the second my she met my mother she had been polite towards her, and when she met me she pick up an umbrella to attack me with. I take it she thinks: I'm a threat, my mother isn't and Paul could be if provoked. That's how I'd read a situation anyway, look for the biggest threat, but then again she seems much smarter than me so she could have already done that and moved on by the time I noticed she was staring.

"Hello..." Paul said cautiously. He was already squirming under her intense gaze, her gray eyes were scary, but beautiful aswell. All the Athena children had different shades of gray eyes at camp ranging from nearly blue, to a silver. But I'd never seen ones like hers before, they were so dark, like storm clouds just before it rained and they swirled like clouds as well. She was definitely unique, the rest of the Athena kids were all pale from staying indoors readings, and while they weren't ugly, they were more wallflowers with features people didn't necessarily notice. She however would never go unnoticed, it was like Aphrodite had her but gave her Athena's eyes and intelligence. She was ten times more beautiful than most of the Aphrodite kids, and if she did turn out to be innocent, I'm sure she'll be hated by that cabin.

"Hi" Annabeth said, though she sounded a lot more nervous than she looked. "I suppose your going to tell me I'm some demi-god then. Is this like a joke at the new girl's expense?"

Paul just furrowed his brow and took a long drink of his coffee before replying " I'm not going to say anything, Percy could prove it to you if he wanted so there's no need."

Annabeth looked like she was impressed by Paul's answer. She slowly turned towards me and watched me as if I were a slightly interesting maths puzzle.

"Are you going to prove it?"she asked breaking the silence.

"Oh Annabeth, I can't myself, b-"i started but was cut of by the increasingly annoying blonde.

" I don't remember telling you my name" she said in an accusatory tone.

"well that's sure good because you didn't" I responded coolly "you had a library card with your name on, now can I finish?" she looked a little disgruntled but motioned for me to continue."as I was saying, I can't show you myself it would be best coming from a friend of mine, but I can introduce you to someone in long island that can prove it."

"Well how long 'til we can do that?"she asked impatiently.

" Er well I was meant to be going in two weeks, but I guess my Mom would let us go now. You can take a shower across the hall and your clothes will be waiting for you when you get out." I promise.

"PERCY JACKSON! SLOW DOWN!" Annabeth's voice calls from somewhere behind me. We're on our way to meet Argus by the car, and I cannot wait for her to meet him. Oh she will freak out about the eyes all over his body. I keep rushing forward forgetting that she's new to the new york hustle and bustle and is getting left behind.

"come on Annabeth we're almost there," I turn and call back. She catches up, short of breathe pushing hair that escaped her ponytail out of her eyes.

"Ready?" I ask mock polite. She just glares at me nodding her head.

We make good time, arriving at the base of the Empire State not that long after. As I'm approaching, I spot the van with Argus waiting beside it with all his eyes closed apart from two. Normal mortals shouldn't be able to see through the mist but Argus doesn't particularly like being screamed at by clear sighted ones. When we reach him I turn to see Annabeth is gazing up at the Empire State building in awe. I give a curt nod to symbolise that Argus can open his eyes and clear my throat to draw Annabeth's attention away from the landmark ahead.

Again the gray eyed girl's reaction to something surprises me, she regards him calmly before turning towards me.

"Yeah okay," she starts, "lets just say for arguments sake I believe you now, I'm gonna go back, it was nice meeting you eyeball man" she says to Argus, " can't say the same for you Jackson" she turns to walk off as I call after her...

"So you really don't want to know who your mother is then?" this gets a pause in her stride but she doesn't turn so I go on, "And I suppose you don't want to learn to defend yourself incase another monster chases you? Because believe me, there is much worse out there." this time she turns around and after a moment of contemplation, strides past me and gets in the van.

I turn to Argus then, taking Annabeth's previous actions as consent. "Come on then, we want to reach there before nightfall so she can settle in." Argus nods and gets in the driver's seat while I climb in the back but leave some distance between myself and the hot-head in the other seat.

After about 20 minutes but what feels like an hour of awkward silence, Annabeth pipes up.

"So where are we going?" she asks.

"Home" I reply. She'll find out soon enough.

**REVIEW PLEASE**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay so my updates may be at random times for the next week or so because my wifi is being stupid. It's my own version of hell. Just letting you know.**

Annabeth POV.

I am BORED. There's nothing more to it. I know I should be completely freaked out by errr... Argie? with his eye-skin. But something about it just seems so right like I belong in this weird world of freakishness. I mean I'd already watched the injuries I inflicted on Percy's face fade in mere seconds when he had an "ambrosia square" so nothing much could shock me for a while. Also after about an hour with nothing but fields to look at outside the window, believe me you'd be bored. The novelty of the drivers eyes just wears off after a while.

I have noticed that both Percy and... Argus! It's Argus! Anyway they've been shooting me weary glances the whole car ride and since about 5 minutes ago, they've gotten more frequent and at least one of Argus' eyes are focused on me at all times. This must mean we're approaching wherever Percy's 'home' is. Obviously it's not the apartment in new york with his loving mother which I find a bit ungrateful. If my father treated me like Sally did to Percy then I wouldn't have left.

The fact that we're getting close to this place that will prove the existence of greek gods is both good and bad. I will either get my answers or get proof that this is all an elaborate prank. And the two others in this van obviously don't trust me, because of some other 'army'.

Just as the tension is getting too much and I'm about to scream at both of them the van pulls over to the side of the road next to a large hill. I make sure Percy gets out first so I have him in eye-sight.

I look around for anything man-made but there's nothing in sight apart from fields like we've driven past for miles. Percy's already halfway up the hill when I follow. I see him reach the top, where he turns to me beckoning for me to hurry up. His lips are slightly upturned aswell, and if I didn't know better, that Percy Jackson is a sullen, moody emotionally closed off individual I would say he was smiling. But that can't be right, the sun must have been in my eyes.

When I get next to him, I follow his gaze down into the valley and get an image of strawberries fields, before I blink and it's like a fog lifts and I gasp.

This place is beautiful! With a glistening lake in the distance, those same strawberry fields from before, and many different shape and sized cabins yet they all manage to look coordinated. I can really see why Percy loves it here. I turn to look at Percy but find the space he'd occupied just air. And that's when the handcuffs were snapped on.

" If your really innocent then I'm sorry about this." he says somewhere close to my left ear.

"You son of a b-" I start.

"Now now Annie your not really helping yourself here." Percy's smug voice says. " This is just a precaution."

"Precaution?!" I spit, " Let me ask you this _Jackson _did you get this precaution when you got here? Something tells me you didn't. When I get out of these cuffs I'm going to rip your stupid smug arrogant face off!"

By this time we were well into the camp, Percy hurriedly pushing me through a crowd that had gathered to witness my entrance. They all seemed rather shocked that I was trying to fight my way from Percy. I noticed they were all armed from daggers to spears everyone of them carried a weapon. I decided that I need to get out now. I began wildly thrashing around, surprising Percy in the process causing him to let go. Unfortunately this meant my balance was thrown forward and I fell to my knees. Thinking quickly I rolled to my back and tucked my knees into my chest managing to wiggle my arms around my feet so I had my hands infront of me.

By this time, the crowd had all backed off a bit giving me the chance to back away from the advancing green eyed boy.

I knew that I had no chance of fighting my way out having only managed to take Percy by surprise in the past. In an actual fight I have no doubt he would crush me without breaking a sweat. Just as I was getting ready to try running at the crowd in desperation, a bright light flashed from behind me and suddenly everyone was dropping to their knees with wide eyes. Well everyone but me and Percy who just looked behind me and groaned like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Taking everyone's cue I turned around expecting... well I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't a beautiful woman stood there in a flowing dress with a stern face. Just standing this close to her I could feel that she was powerful and knew that she was part of this mythical world Percy spoke of. Well I guess it's not so mythical now but that's not the point.

" Camp Half-Blood, I want it known that Annabeth Chase is an innocent." the woman started in a deadly calm tone, "She had no idea that this world existed until two days ago. I know some of you are wondering how she has gotten to sixteen years of age without being claimed. The answer is that I, her mother Athena have been protecting and guiding her. I also want it known that no child of mine is part of Kronos' army and I intend to keep it that way." she turned towards me and smiled warmly before her edges started getting bright and I followed everyone's lead by covering my eyes. When I open my eyes again she's gone leaving me with more questions.

One thing I know for sure is that greek gods exist and apparently one of them is my mother. Here I was for sixteen years thinking I was a burden to my father and his family, when all along my real mother had been watching over me, protecting me from monsters the whole time. I feel warmth spread through me like a lifetime of love is catching up with me and directing itself towards a woman I just met. I can now say I have a mother.

The pressure on my wrists lifts and I snap out of my revelation to see two green orbs showing triumph but still managing to be cold and empty. "Told you your an Athena" he says cockily like the dick head he is.

I love the pure shock that spreads across his and most of the other now standing demi-gods faces when my palm connects with his cheek causing a resonating _slap _to sound. Percy recovers quickly and glares pure hatred at me while a pink hand print spreads across his face.

" Oh I like her." comes a gruff female voice which I locate to come from a bulky intimidating female to my right.

" Shut up Clarisse" someone else calls back.

The crowds then start to disperse until theres just me, Percy and a blonde boy who has similar grey eyes to me. Before Percy goes he leaves me with the very positve parting words:

"watch your back."

"Well I think that went well." I say mostly to myself. The blonde haired boy next to me chuckles startling me.

" hi. I'm Malcolm your greek sibling I guess. I thought you might want help finding our cabin." he says kindly. Now that I get a good look at him I can see how Percy knew I was Athena's daughter, we look very familiar and obviously we both have grey eyes although his are slightly lighter.

"Thank you" I reply kindly.

"It's really no problem. And just while I can, I've got to warn you, the Aphrodite cabin don't seem very friendly towards you so I'd watch them. They really don't take kindly towards pretty girls entering camp." the way he says it isn't like he's interested in me because that would be weird. He just says it like a fact. To be honest I've never really thought about my looks before. I couldn't really care less. I never saw why people only take looks into account before trying to "make a move". I mean sure I find people attractive, take Percy for example, but I wouldn't date him just for looks. Certainly not now I know him to be a complete jerk. There's more to people. Then again looks are a plus... From Malcolm's warning I get the feeling that Aphrodite children and me share opposing views on this subject.

We walk in a comfortable silence and I find myself more comfortable with this boy than I ever was with my two mortal half brothers. Don't get me wrong I loved them to bits the little devils but that's just it, they were two of the noisiest, messiest kids ever. And now within five minutes of meeting my Greek brother I know we'll get along.

"you know." Malcolm starts, "Athena must really like you if she went to all that trouble keeping you safe. And then she personally claimed you which she has never done. You must be something special." I look up and notice something in his eyes: pride. He's already treating me like an older brother would, no jealousy in his tone and it really warms my heart after not feeling like I fit in anywhere before. I finally belong.

**So thats chapter 5 guys. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? Tellme tellme tellme!**

**By the way can I thank **The Devil Was An Angel** Too for your review. Meant a lot.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 here. Hope you enjoy! **

Annabeth's POV.

"Hey Annabeth!" someone called from behind as I walked to dinner. I spun around and came face to face with an out-of-breath Katie. She'd been really kind to me and was my best friend since I got here about a fortnight ago. She's a Daughter of Demeter, head of her cabinand just about the nicest person ever. Even the Aphrodite children get along her and Katie's _gorgeous. _I wait for her to catch her breath and when she does she grins excitedly at me.

" Annabeth what day is it?" she says obviously expecting a reaction. What a weird question. And why is she so excited?

"July 24th why?" I reply instantly raising my eyebrow.

She rolls her eyes at me like she's exasperated but the smile is still on her face. " you were supposed to say friday but I should have know better than to ask an Athena kid that. Anyway what I mean is that before all this craziness with Kronos and demi-gods turning to his side, we used to have a capture the flag game every friday and Chiron has allowed one today!"Wow. She didn't even breathe between sentences. But I guess Capture the flag does sound fun. Although judging from the fact that this camp is meant to help us in combat, that means that this game could get brutal.

"that actually sounds really cool." I say smiling easily at the giddy teenager in front of me. Even though everyone warns me there's a war coming and we should be terrified, Katie always lightens the mood and is cheerful. Except when Travis Stoll is around, then it's a different story entirely...

" Yes it is! And oh my gods guess what!" I don't even have time to consider guessing before she tells me, " we're on the same team!"

I actually grin at her now. This could be a really fun game and after 2 weeks of training all day and researching monsters and their weakness by night, I could do with some fun.

" Oh we are soo gonna win. I mean we've got to if this game only gets played occasionally." I say thinking of a few strategies before remembering Katie was there talking.

"- so yeah thats a shame I guess." she says with a frown. What?

" sorry could you repeat? Athenian brain." I throw her an apologetic smile.

" Oh! No problem. I was just saying how even though we've got Athena, Demeter, Ares and even Apollo, the other team has Hermes which is the biggest cabin and Poseidon which has Percy the single best fighter and the rest of the cabins all joined wherever Percy was; including Hephaestus, the two Dionysus kids and Aphrodite for once." she says her frown deepening in thought.

I choose to look positively because even the Hermes cabin is _massive, _they're not unbeatable.

" At least we've got all the offensive players." I say optimistically. By now we're at the dining pavilion. "I guess I'll see you before the game."

"See ya!" she grins before joining her siblings at the Demeter. I make my way over to where Malcolm sits with the rest of the Athena cabin. I take my usual seat next to him and tune into whatever conversation is going on. Everyone is sort of shouting over everybody else so its quite difficult.

"-only have the upper hand in numbers. We can crush them if we use a good enough strategic plan." one says.

"Okay enough!" the cabin leader Olivia shouts. Oh I forgot to tell you about her? Well not much explaining needed so should be easy to catch you up. In short: mega bitch. Avoided me since day one, tried turning others against me within our cabin and basically just been a piece of work the whole time. In general, there seems to be a divide between the cabin over her. There's her sheep who only follow her because she's wicked good with a sword. And then the rest of us who just avoid her as much as possible. Everybody goes quiet now and she sweeps her gaze over the table.

" you all need to worry about fighting and leave the complicated thinking to me. I will discuss the plan with the other cabin leaders and then we'll tell you lot. I'll get us a winning plan." she says pompously. She's so arrogant I just want to punch her. Instead I just zone out and wait for Chiron to speak before we can eat.

When he does, I'm thoroughly grateful as it's getting increasingly difficult to bite my tongue over the things Olivia is coming out with. I know the others feel the same so I follow their lead to help stop an argument.

"So," Chiron starts, "by now you should all be aware of the upcoming game of Capture the flag tonight." this gets a loud cheer from the Hermes table but to be fair so does most things. "i will give you until 7 o'clock to set up plans and get down to the forest, which should be over an hour if you eat quickly. There is to be no killing or maiming of any sort. You may bind a prisoners hands but that is all. Now that everyone is caught up on the rules.. lets eat!" another cheer from the Hermes table later and I'm standing up with the rest of the cabin to make a sacrifice out of my mac 'n' cheese with chips.

As I'm watching the substantial portion of my meal get turned to ash, I send up a quick prayer to my mother but its the revised one I've been saying for the past week and a half now. I just don't do well with praying to someone I've met once and nothing I say can express the gratitude I feel towards the Goddess of Wisdom.

When I sit down I shovel in my remaining food like everyone else, eager to start the game. Still, after we've all finished on my table we remain seated awaiting our orders from Olivia. All she does is look at us before saying " Go do something useful like put on armour while I actually do the hard work." I just sigh exasperated before getting up with Malcolm to leave.

As we're walking down towards the cabins Katie jogs up behind. "hey guys. Your sisters as lovely as ever. Came straight up to me and said she'd make the plan without mine or the other two cabin leaders help."

" Yeah we just let her do what she wants now, she'd only get mad and threaten us with a sword-fight if we challenged her." Malcolm said with a shrug. Ugh I why does he have to be right? I know it's true but I don't have to like it.

Katie raised an eyebrow at him " I reckon Annabeth could give her a run for her money using a sword. And she'd be even better with her dagger if she had more practice." I roll my eyes at her. She always says this about my dagger skills. I'm not rubbish don't get me wrong, I'm very good now I have a balanced one courtesy of the Hephaestus cabin. I'm just not as good as a certain child of Demeter would have you believe. I do love my dagger though, its perfectly balanced with a leather strap to go around my wrist which makes it virtually impossible to disarm me.

" tell me about it." Malcolm says. He's another exaggerator. I just scoff at both of them causing them to look at me. " No really Annabeth, you've been her two weeks and your fighting like it's been years. Sometimes it's genuinely scary how fast you've improved."

This certainly catches my attention, " your... scared of me?" I ask sceptically.

His eyes widen like he wants to retract his words, " No Annabeth no _of_ you. Just of the rate you improve. Its more impressed than scared."

"I really don't see it but thanks anyway guys." I say trying to be polite.

At this point Katie veers off to her cabin to fetch her armour saying she'll see us in the forest. Myself and Malcolm go into the Athena cabin to put on ours and retrieve any weapons we're going to use.

When we're finished we walk steadily towards the forest as we're one of the first done. When we reach our side there are very few people there and Olivia seems to be on a war path. She's in her armour with her sword swinging from her him and is bossing everybody into place. When she spots us she tells us that we're to be part of the retrieving team. Well_ tells_ might be too kind a word but I'm in a good mood so what the hell. She leaves without telling us the full plan which I think is rather stupid of her but I can pick up the rest of it from her screaming at the different people who turn up.

From what I've gathered, there will be two main halves of our force: retrieving and defending. But the twist is that the retrieving side is a decoy of sorts. We charge in to distract while another very small force go around back to get the flag. Its an okay plan altogether I must admit, but it's not at all original. I wouldn't be surprised if the other team has the exact same one. I can think of some much better ones that would be much more likely to succeed but go off the same logic.

Once everybody's here Olivia explains exactly what I just figured out and announces she will lead the small scouting group that will go around back. I also see she has put the Demeter and Apollo cabins as the defending group which is again something I would not do. I would put Ares defending with Apollo because they're more bulky than Demeter in general so would not be very stealthy through the forest.

I voice all of my suggestions to Malcolm and he looks at me impressed before nodding, "Mhmm I agree that your plan has a higher percent of success rate but I still think we should just accept that Olivia's plan is the only one she's going to approve."

"But-" I start. He interupts.

"No Annabeth, I'm looking out for you here. You do not want Olivia as your enemy." he warns.

" thats funny I thought she was already." I quip thinking of every time she's been nasty or dismissive of me.

"Believe me, you haven't seen anything yet" he says.

I sigh loudly in defeat and go to stand where Olivia positioned the retrieving force to start which _again_ I would have positioned differently.

And then all I here is Chiron's shout of "BEGIN." before everyone close to me surges forward.

**So that is chapter six and I hope you liked it. Maybe you could review if you did? Even if you didn't still review. Seriously guys. Review. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 is a go. Review.**

Annabeth's POV.

"BEGIN."

Surging forward I follow Malcolm through the dense trees. Everyone stays tightly packed as we go through the forest. According to Malcolm they've got their flag in some clearing South-East of where our flag is situated. I'm not as familiar with all the woods so I stay at the back where I can follow them. "Okay guys! We're nearly at their flag! Remember, be on guard, they could be anywhere." Some Ares camper at the front calls. At this, I push my way to the front as we speed up. When we reach the clearing we run straight in but stop short at the sight. The whole of the Hermes and Aphrodite cabins are here. Meaning they have at least double our numbers. The numbers look daunting but I'm willing to bet the Aphrodite kids will be more of a hindrance than anything else.

"What's wrong guys? Scared of little old us?" Connor Stoll teases from the front line. At this all the Ares cabin surge forward from anger, leaving the rest of us to catch up, because we actually think before acting. When the two force clash, it turns out they had been suspecting our plan and about 10 members stay back to guard our flag which will be enough to hold off the team going around the back. Who at this moment are charging onto the field. I parry with my sword endlessly and move through the crowd. I can see us over powering the other side but it's too slow and if someone doesn't get to the flag soon then we'll lose for sure.

Taking the initiative, I begin to fight harder and head towards the flag. I'm nearly there when I feel a clang against the armour on my back and my whole body falls to the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I see a lanky Hermes boy lowering the butt of his sword towards my head. I roll to the side and end on my back where I aim a kick at the guy's legs causing him to fall into two of his own force. While they all go down I get to my feet and charge straight for the flag. I reach it and yank it out of the ground then turn and sprint for the trees.

I can feel someone behind me so I pull out my sword again and swing around. Fortunately Malcolm had kept enough distance to not be headless but he does look thoroughly shaken at how close a call it was.

"Sorry! Shit sorry, just don't sneak up on me." I say startled. He just nods panting from the run.

"Don't worry about it just run, I'll cover you."he replies. I remember now I'm holding the flag and sprint off to towards the creak. We could still win but I have no idea where the other half of the opposition is. I'm one step away from the water in the creak when it explodes into a ten foot wall of water. Only one person could do that, and he's obviously very close by.

I turn to Malcolm and hand him the flag, " as soon as the water goes down you run across, okay?" I say.

" you can't seriously be thinking about fighting him? Your really good Annabeth and that's the truth, but another truth is that Percy is infinitely better than you and everyone else at camp." my brother says like I've lost my mind.

I give him a pointed look, because I already knew I don't stand a chance against, " Mal I never said anything about winning, but this wall of water has to take some concentration right. So I distract him and you run."

" Why can't you run?" he asks.

" Because your faster, and who knows how long I'll last. It could be seconds." I reply honestly. He's about to complain further when we're interrupted.

" Well at least she realises that she's gonna win." the weird thing is that the voice is from above. I look up at trees and see Percy perched on a low branch a few feet away. I've not spoken to him since the day I arrived . Just my luck that I'd have to face him now.

He jumps down swinging his sword round nonchalantly. I raise my own sword and swing at deflects it easily and the creaks water doesn't even lower an inch. I swing several more times to no avail. I know time is running low, our defences can't last forever, so I up the force of my swings. I send a swipe low towards his legs and catch his calf drawing blood. He grunts in pain looking genuinely shocked I could injure him. Serves him right the cocky shit.

I see the creak lower substantially and take my opportunity to attack again before he can bring it back up. This time though, he's actually putting in slight effort and it's all I can do to parry the strikes that look effortless to him but nearly disarm me each time. 'Should have brought my shield' is all I can think. I wanted to be able to move swiftly so I left it in my cabin, that was a mistake. I don't know how far Malcolm got when I'm disarmed but I know I can't have been fighting for more than 10 seconds. My sword goes flying through the air and I desperately look towards the river to see my sibling over half-way across. Unfortunately Percy sees this too and turns his attention. I act without thinking and barely hear Malcolm's cry of fear before I knock a certain Son of Poseidon to the ground. Malcolm got pushed back a lot though before Percy's attention was back on me which means I have to fight for longer.

Leaping backwards away from Percy I twist down and retrieve my dagger from my boot. When Percy sees it he looks rather amused at the prospect of me taking his sword on with my dagger. But a weapons a weapon and I've trained against Katie's sword with a dagger before and won so I'm confident I can buy Malcolm more time.

I step in close to try and get inside his defences and duck his first swing. I slice his sword arm just above the elbow and then step away, taking my blue plumed helmet off as I do. This time I barely see the same overhead swipe as before coming as the speed of it is so fast. When I stand straight this time I see and inch of my blonde curls falling down from my head and being carried off by the wind. That means I was very close to being seriously injured just because this fish faced dick head in front of me has a temper. Well now he's about to see my temper.

I go in again, only to get kicked in the chest. Luckily my breast-plate takes most of the force off but I know for a fact that Percy Jackson is still just toying with me. If he wanted to I would have been dead after my first amateur swing at him. But he wants me to know how inferior I am by tiring myself out. He comes at me again and pushes me to the ground roughly, he swipes at me and I roll just in time to dodge it. Sitting up I tightly hold my daggers handle and send the blade toward his thigh. It buries deep in leg and he cries out in pain. In a flash his uninjured leg is connecting with the part of my torso armour isn't covering; my stomach. I cough up blood but with my hand still on my dagger I twist the hilt and rip it out quickly causing his knee to buckle.

I guess he decides to stop playing now and grabs the wrist of my fighting arm and brings his other arm down on my straight arm causing a loud crack to sound and pain to shoot through my nerves. I scream loudly but manage to hold back the tears. I notice he's very close now and bring my forehead forward quickly connecting with his nose. It doesn't break but blood does run out of it.

He brings back his arm and punches me twice in the stomach and once in the face. By this point I'm exhausted and he's breathing steadily still. I have a broken nose and arm and possibly some internal bleeding while his only substantial wound is a lucky shot to his thigh.

He brings back his arm to deliver a final knock-out blow when-

"ENOUGH."

Chiron comes galloping over. We both look up in shock to see the entirety of camp staring on in different emotions from awe to terror. From the looks of it Malcolm got across some time ago and was left onlooking my brutal beating.

"The two of you just displayed exactly why we haven't let you play this game for so long. You shouldn't use it as a chance to blow off steam in these stressful times. Yes theres pressure on all of us especially you Percy, but we should band time together not use each other as punching bags." he looks so dissapointed in us I feel just about the most shame ever felt. " I will see you two up at the Big House tomorrow morning where your punishment will be decided." Before he goes he hands Percy an ambrosia square and asks Will Solace from Apollo to reset my arm and nose before I can eat an ambrosia square otherwise my bone might heal at a funny angle. I don't want to bore you with who said what to who, and Will says anything he's lying. Put simply, making the bones go back in place is twice as painful as the original break.

Afterwards when I've fully thanked and apologised to Will, I go back to my cabin ready to collapse. What I wasn't expecting was an applause and cheering from Malcolm and then to come face to face with a very pissed looking Olivia. Lucky fucking me...

**review review review. Only three in six chapters. I'm pretty sure that's a bad thing. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay new chapter. Thank you for your patience. Had a lot on with summer and wifi problems and just overall writers block for the next few chapters. Should be a lot more frequent updates now. Sorry. **

Annabeth POV.

"What the FUCK where you playing at?!" Olivia screeched at me. Oh my gods I was not in the mood for this. I just got my ass handed to me and I'm not sure how long I can hold my tongue now. Seriously she needs to chill, I'm tired and that makes for a not very fun Annabeth.

I try walking around her to my bunk but she just steps in the way. " Where do you think your going?" she asks.

" To my bunk." I say slowly like it was obvious. I'm very aware of the whole cabins on us. Olivia's posse sneering, and the siblings I actually like looking worried.

" And did I say you could leave?" she demands.

" I wasn't aware I needed permission to go to my bunk." I say calmly although I feel the anger running through my whole body. And judging by Olivia's face she is not happy that I am actually talking back, even just stating the obvious. She hasn't seen anything yet.

" Yeah well. I'm head counsellor so your in my cabin." she says cockily. She really needs to be put in her place the spoilt bitch.

"Actually I'm in Athena's cabin. Our mother, you know the Goddess that claimed me in person." I retort tilting my head to the side. I don't actually like talking about the way I was claimed, but with Olivia I just feel like making her angry. And by the anger that flashes through her eyes, I've definitely hit a sore spot.

" I'm sure mother regrets that now after you were beaten by that sea scum." she's obviously looking for cheap shots now, and I refuse to let her actually get to me.

"Oh I beg to differ." I say with shrug, " It's just little old me's opinion, but I never expected to win. I just wanted to buy Malcolm enough time to get across the river, which I did. Your welcome by the way. I was able to withstand the best fighter in camp after just over two weeks here. I'd say that Lady Athena would be proud that I understood what I was doing and appreciate me taking the initiative where you obviously lacked. " Cue collective breath from the whole cabin then stunned silence.

" Wha- Where I lacked?" she splutters shocked from my bravery. I'll probably regret it later but at the moment Olivia is the reason I'm not already asleep, she brought this on herself.

"Quite severely I'm afraid." I announce matter of factly. " not only on planning but with leadership and the execution of your own plan. All traits of children of Athena you were insufficient. You were a good decoy for myself and Malcolm to get the flag though." Maybe it's over kill but I can't resist. So I put on a sickly sweet smile and throw in, "Well done you."

I'm expecting another gasp from everyone but instead I hear snickering from all the people not under Olivia's influence, the rest are all really quiet realising their leader isn't looking so good right now.

"Who do you think you are?" Olivia practically screams at me. Okay now there's no way the other cabins can't hear this.

"Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena absolute pleasure." I offer my hand, "Can I go to sleep now? You may be able to tell but I get slightly cranky when people stop me sleeping."

She regards my hand like I'm diseased and walks of to her bunk with a "This isn't over."

Finally some sleep.

* * *

"Oh my gods! Malcolm told me." Katie says as soon as I walk out my cabin. I'm last out because I over-slept. I really was exhausted, but I feel like I may have just passed a line I can't ever undo. Oh well I'm hungry and Olivia's a bitch, why get all worked up.

"Katie calm down. I was practically sleepwalking." I reason because if I don't I won't stop hearing about this all day. I mean Katie's closer than all my sisters to me and I feel like I've known her forever but this girl can talk.

She scoffs, "Malcolm told me word for word, you know how freakish your Athenian memory is." Okay offensive. I don't comment on her weird love for any living plant including nettles. I mean sure flowers are nice but nettles? Really.

"It really wasn't that big a deal. An argument like that with anybody else would be forgotten easily, just because it was that egotistically maniac is why your making a big deal about this." I say evenly, bored of the subject already.

"Actually I'm not the only one, everyone was curious what the shouting was about last night. And word got out about you standing up to her and now everyone's talking about it." What the fuck? I groan as I put my face in my hands. "Yeah it's weird, I didn't know Olivia had pissed so many people off. I mean it's not surprising, it's just that the majority of the camp is kind of in awe of you. So am I to be honest, that girl is crazy."

"Mhmm well as fun as this is, I have to go see Chiron because of yesterday." any excuse to leave this conversation, even spending time with Percy Jackson. Up until yesterday I had successfully avoided him and now I see him twice in 12 hours. Woo fucking hoo.

I trudge up towards the Big house, passing many people on the way to breakfast. It was weird they were all obviously talking about me and made no attempt to hide it, staring unashamedly. I kept my chin up and walked with purpose to the porch of the Big house where Chiron and Percy were in discussion. Mr. D wasn't here as he had lucky for me been called back to Olympus to discuss Typhon's escape from under Hephaestus' forge.

When I got there, the other Demi-god and the centaur stopped speaking suddenly. They turned to me, Percy smirking and Chiron putting on his 'discipline' face. But he had a twinkle of what I could only call amusement in his eyes which made me dread whatever his next words would be.

"Ahh Annabeth, glad you're here. So lets just get to business so that you two can get some breakfast before it's over. I am not going to punish you two severely as we are all in desperate times which are heavy burdens on all of the campers, especially you Percy." Aahh they're refering to that Great Prophecy thing Katie told me about. He's going to save Olympus or die. Something like that. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about him being our only hope but I'll just have to roll with it. Without realising I've completely drifted off and have to snap myself out just in time to hear what Chiron is talking about. "-Percy you have to train Annabeth sword-fighting and hand to hand combat."

"WHAT?" I exclaim. He's kidding right? "For how long?"

"For two hours a day until further notice and no amount of arguing will change my mind . There is a battle coming and you may be extremely talented with a sword and dagger, but you can't be even nearly your full potential after a fortnight here. Percy hear can help you greatly." then he walked away leaving me with Percy. Who had been surprisingly quiet throughout all of this.

" So, heard about your little argument with Olivia last night. Got to commend you on that, 'bout time someone stood up to her." he says.

" Did you just give me a compliment?" I say completely shocked. Erm wasn't he trying to kill me yesterday?

"Well I'm stuck with you for now so no point hating you." he reasons. I still don't like the way that the only emotions he conveys are anger or indifference. The most affectionate I've seen him was with his mother, and even that smile didn't show teeth or reach his eyes. Such a nice face shouldn't be so cold and void of feeling. "So I'll see you at about 2 'til 4 from now on starting today. See ya."

"Bye." I say to his back which is already walking away. And I make myself a promise. I have no idea if I'll die in this war but before I do I will get to know the real Percy Jackson. Not the front he puts up, because there has to more than what everyone else has accepted as him. And I will find it.

**sorry again for the wait people. review. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Yes I know I haven't written in ages but believe me when I say I didn't forget. I literally have had about 16 detentions since september and homework's a bitch. This story will be slow going but I am determined to finish it. I have so many idea's for where it's going to go, beside the obvious percabeth. Thanks. **

**Percy POV.**

"No no no! Stop!" I call. It's my first session training Annabeth and I have to admit she's good but not good enough yet.

Annabeth straightens up, flustered at my fifth time stopping her assault on me. She does not say anything but I can tell her patience is wearing thin.

"Okay, you need to re-think your whole training so far." I say, " Your an Athenian right, and even though we're like enemies or whatever, I still respect her for the domains that she controls. One being battle strategy. But you... your just fighting how Olivia has taught you, and without any forethought or plan." She looks at me like I'm crazy, and I probably sound like it. I mean how many sons of Poseidon go around praising their father's enemy... not many.

"Then how do you suppose I fight from now on? _Think_ really hard and the sword will just fly out your hands?" Annabeth goads. By the gods she can be annoying.

"No, don't be stupid. What I mean is, fight like you did yesterday, when you were out to help Malcolm. But you know, a little less trying to take off my legs." she has the decency to smile sheepishly at the last part. "Right we'll try again and just forget for now anything you've been taught and fight on that demi-god instinct. Okay?" I raise my sword at the end waiting for her to make the first move.

She does good I guess, it takes me about 3 minutes longer to disarm her due to an opening on her left side which I could step into. I bring my sword's hilt down on her right wrist hard enough to slacken her grip on and then heavily swing the blade at her own which goes skittering across the floor.

"Urgggh! I suck." Annabeth cries.

"Yeah you kind of do..." I tell her honestly, dusting dirt off my sword.

"Gee thanks. Chiron's right, your so damn_ helpful_." she picks up her sword and starts walking to the exit.

Rolling my eyes I call out to her "I'm being honest with you here. Would you prefer me to lie to you?"

" I don't want to be babied Jackson, but I don't need you being a jerk to me. Olivia's already on my case enough thanks. And I haven't got a clue what I did to those fucking Aphrodite girls but they need to back off." she scowls at the floor like it was an impossible math equation.

I thought she was an Athena child? Is she honestly oblivious? "Are you an idiot?" I blurt out before I can stop myself.

The next thing I know Annabeth's storming back over to me gripping her sword like she's forgotten the last 2 hours. " Excuse me?!" she spits out.

" Okay chill out. All I want to know is, are you completely oblivious to why those girls hate you?" she looks at me expectantly so I add "Seriously? Wow."

"Malcolm says its because I'm pretty, but they're gorgeous with a capital G. Plus he has to say that, he's my brother." she's obviously still angry about the 'idiot' comment from the way her voice is still partly raised.

I decide to just tell her, "Annabeth look, I don't know if you've ever looked in a mirror or anything but you are much more than pretty. I'm not trying to "seduce" you or anything, I'm just telling you the honest to gods truth. First time we met I thought you were an Aphrodite kid"i confess and she glares at me but I notice a light blush on her cheeks, "until I saw your eyes and you don't even wear makeup or anything. Quite honestly, everybody here is pretty sick of the Aphrodite cabin's attitude and your like the opposite of them but look better at the same time. Can you really blame them for hating you? Beauty is their thing and then you just come in and take over without even knowing." I finish.

Annabeth just stands there studying me for a while, finally she speaks up, " I don't get you. I mean, it's like in the Athena job description to understand both the enemy and their allies but I just don't get you. One minute your like the biggest ass in the world and the next your saying all these really nice things. And I know your saying you're being honest but it's still sweet to say, and I didn't think you were capable of 'sweet'."

"I'm not sweet, I'm honest and quite frankly I'm a guy. I may not be a nice person but I'm not blind." I say. And then she's looking at me funny, until she nods like she's made a conclusion. The next thing I know, my sword is on the floor and Annabeth is smirking triumphantly.

"You dropped something"

**short chapter here guys, believe me when i say im busy, have to apply to college and lets just say my behaviour isn't the best. please review. and yes i will be updating a long chapter soon, Percy is quite a difficult perspective in this fic because he's obviously not the same as the books so bear with me  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**I know fast update, but just got so many ideas right now. I'll admit this story is going to mostly Annabeth's Pov, I like to focus on one character's journey. But there will be some Percy pov so don't worry.**

**Annabeths POV.**

When I walk into the dining pavilion with Percy after that first training session, we are met with abrupt silence and staring, which confuses me. Putting on my excellent poker face, I turn to bid Percy goodbye, but he cuts me off.

"Tomorrow, 10am, I recommend you eat early if you don't want a stitch, but your from the Athena cabin so getting up early really isn't a problem. Bye." and then he just walks away to his table leaving me to make my way to my own.

We seemed to have made progress in training, he was being less closed off, I saw his lips twitch precisely once. But now we just seem to have gone back to before, when he ignore me. Im so concerned with this as I sit down that I don't notice Olivia talking to me.

"Sorry, what?" I ask, looking up towards her end of the table.

She sneers at me like I disgust her every time I breathe. " Are you deaf? I asked where you've been you airhead."

Calm thoughts, do not get mad. "I was with Percy." Simple, polite, good job me.

By the wide eyes all around me, and Olivia scandalised gasp, it was entirely the wrong thing to say. I brace myself for the onslaught from my siblings. And it would obviously be Queen bitch to start first. " What do you think you are playing at?" she whispers harshly, trying and failing to not draw attention. "Are you trying to piss me off? Lets get one thing straight here okay, Poseidon is our _enemy_ and you will not speak to his _spawn_ ever again."

I just smile easily acting as though the whole camp isn't watching this exchange, including Poseidon's "spawn". " You know that's gonna be pretty hard Olivia." I say thinking really hard about the delicious McDonalds cheeseburger and fries to keep me calm. They appear on my plate and I grin in glee. Unfortunately my half sister has to open her mouth once again and my smile disappears.

"Oh? And why is that? Has Annie got a crush?" she asks cockily. Her minions get a kick out of that. I wait for their over-the-top, fake laughter to drown away before replying.

"Actually Olivia, Chiron ordered him to train me. Probably because your too busy ordering everybody around to train me yourself, so he got someone better to do it." I shrug nonchalantly like it was a real puzzle. No one in the pavilion seemed to be breathing as they awaited Olivia's response.

" I am a master swordsman and everybody knows it. You dare question my skill?" it was like a ping-pong match with everybody looking between the two us. I'm surprised Chiron hasn't intervened yet but with a quick glance up at the head table, I realise he's not here.

"Actually no," I admit, and she smirks like this means she's won, better teach her a lesson before her head gets too big, "but, I do think that everybody also knows Percy is better now than you'll ever be."

"You know what Chase? You talk big and everything but I don't see you leading the cabin. I am. Which means I say what you can and can't do. Got it?" she's definitely fuming and I don't want to carry on this argument anymore.

"You know what? If you have a problem, you can take it up with Chiron, I am just following his instructions. So unless you have a valid reason for me not to get trained by the best fighter in this camp, leave me the fuck alone." and with that I get up and storm out throwing all my fries in the pit before leaving, cheeseburger in hand.

I know that it's against the rules to leave the pavilion with food but nobody seems to have the courage to stop me. As I get further away, I hear the usual chatter resume, probably talking about what just happened.

* * *

"Was surprised to find you here. I thought you would hate water like your siblings." Katie says, when she finds me an hour later, she sits down next to me at the side of the lake."You want to talk about it?"

"No, I'm not even upset, I'm furious." I reply honestly. "The more I think about it, the more worked up I get. I mean I don't see why Olivia treats me like shit! And her little group? I thought they were Athena's kids, mature, smart, level headed. All I see is a group of sheep following their leader. I'd expect that from some other cabins but not the one that's meant to be wise." I vent.

Katie nods in understand, "Annabeth they may be genius children, but they're are still teenagers. And teenagers get jealous."

I sigh angrily at her response, "Oh yeah? And why would they be jealous of me."

"Come on, you were claimed by your mother in person, and you're the fastest combat learner I've ever seen, and you are basically a young version of Athena herself. So tons of reasons." She sums up.

I digest this data. So supposedly both my own cabin and the Aphrodite cabin are now jealous of me? I'm not even gonna argue with Katie because quite frankly I don't want to anger her. I heard rumours that she wrapped Travis Stoll up in vines once when he pranked her. And I may disagree with her but I don't really feel like being attacked by flowers.

We just sit in silence for a while, dipping our feet in the lake. I know we won't be disturbed by my siblings here because of the whole aversion to water.

Unfortunately the down side is that the water is basically a magnet for certain sons of Poseidon.

Remembering how Percy treated me at the pavilion, I decide to make an exit before he can get round to our side of the lake. "Katie come on..." I grab her arm and we stand up. She gives me a confused look but comes along anyway.

I hear Percy calling out after us and we speed up. Now Katie looks even more confused than before and the only place I can think of going is the cabins where I will surely be met with a more than angry Olivia. Oh well, this is a matter of pride, and according to Malcolm, all Athena's children are very prideful.

We make it pretty far but then again, we don't have shoes on and we're running from _Percy_. By the time I feel his hand close around my arm we're already outside the cabins.

He spins me round to face him, "Annabeth? What the Hades?"

Katie takes a few steps back saying, "I'm gonna... go."

taking her cue I try the same thing, "Yeah, you know it's pretty late actually" Cue fake yawn. Nailed it.

Yet again though, Percy pulls me back. "What was that? You just ran off and I was shouting after you?"

Okay I can either come clean or I can play dumb. I know right, child of Athena, dumb? Never. But worth a try. "Oh? You were?"

He just stares me down, like he can see right through me, "Right, what's wrong? There's something up with you."

"With me?" I ask, eyebrows shooting up, "what about you Mr Cold-shoulder? In the pavilion you acted like you don't even know me. I know that just yesterday we were beating the shit out of each other but I thought we'd made progress at the very least."

Percy's pretty sea green eyes are... shut up brain. His eyes are wide okay? I think I may have just ranted a tiny little minuscule bit. "Soooo you ran away from me because you're pissed at me?"

"Yes! I mean seriously, you can't go from acting friendly to ignoring me in five minutes! I'm just trying to make friends." I sigh dejectedly, "What did you want me for anyway?"

"Oh" he says, startled by the change in conversation, "I was just going to warn you not to anger Olivia too much. What you said at dinner was spot on and one hundred percent true but you should be careful. She may not be as good as me but she's still pretty tough."

I yawn a real one this time, not able to stay angry with so little energy. "Right well I will see you tomorrow. 10Am right?" I take his nod as my dismissal and head for my cabin, not eager to get munched on by the harpies.

I was on the top step of the cabin when Percy called my name. I spun round to see him with those green orbs filled with a hopeless sadness that made me do a double take, but the look had disappeared. "Yes Percy?"

"You said before that you wanted to be friends... but I don't think that would be in your best interest. What I mean is we shouldn't be friends." he finally says.

Too tired to come up with possible reason to argue I just nod, "Whatever you say."

And then he's gone, and I see that distraught look in his eyes before the door to cabin 3 closes behind him.

**Good chapter? Why don't you tell me. Please review, this chapter took a while and I quite enjoyed the sarcasm. **


	11. Chapter 11

** . . . . . . . . . .Review. **

**Annabeth's Pov.**

It's been just over two weeks since that night with Percy. 15 days to be exact and we've been very distant. More like Percy shows no interest in being my friend and I gave up trying after day 3. I have learnt a lot about his life from Katie and Malcolm, but stopped asking them when Katie suggested I had a crush on him. Which I do but I'm obviously not going to let her know that am I?

As for our training sessions, I had come a long way, even Percy had admitted how quick a learner I was. I hadn't mastered nearly as many weapons as he had, and he didn't want to bother teaching me complicated weaponry. Also he's really bad at archery. So we mainly stuck to hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting. I practised with my dagger in my own time and never told Percy, because he told me to just focus on swords. He said I was very good with my sword now and we mainly focus on the physical combat. I was okay I guess, but I was weak compared to my opponent. He was after all, a lot bigger and stronger than me but I was quicker apparently. I didn't feel that quick when I was tasting the sand. Seriously, its disgusting.

Today Percy decided on an hour of sword fighting and then later we would 'fight'. More like I would be getting a sand-wich... I am hilarious.

"Right, I'll let you attack first today" Percy tells me, pulling out his ballpoint pen and uncapping it.

"Aww," I reply, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "Aren't you chivalrous?"

Before he can make a retort, I run forward expecting him to go on the defensive. What I'm not expecting is him to run forward at me too. He doesn't even stop when he reaches me, just ploughs full-force into me and throws me over his shoulder, resulting in me crashing into the ground, face-up with all air gone from my body.

I splutter and gasp for oxygen whilst trying to stand, by the time I'm on my feet Percy is looking bored and merely raises one eyebrow. "What the _fuck_?!" I demand.

He doesn't even bat an eye at my tone. "Today I'm teaching you to use the hand-to-hand training we practised and incorporate in sword fighting. Whenever your ready attack me, but remember don't just use your weapon, fists are much faster, although they are admittedly weaker than celestial bronze."

I am literally seeing red right now. I can feel that surge of adrenaline I felt against the hell-hound and now know it to be my demi-god instincts coming into play. I run at full speed towards him and he mirrors my actions, but this time, the second before I get flipped like a pancake, I side-step into a crouch with my leg out. I feel a sick satisfaction when I see Percy trip on my leg which soon disappears when he falls into a roll and stands back up. He spins around and charges at me like the fall never happened. Shit.

I swing my sword at his head, making him choose between stopping his run or death. Riptide clangs against my own blade with enough force to nearly knock it out of my hand. For a while we parry each other's strikes looking for an advantage. When Percy seemingly can't find one he goes on the offensive, both trying to disarm me and assaulting my body with his fists. If I didn't have armour on I would probably be crying like a baby on the floor right now.

Desperate to stop him from winning so soon I take several steps away. I know I'll never win with a sword, but Katie said I was "Wicked good" with a dagger. With a dagger you have to get up close to the enemy. I don't need power I just need to be smart about where I attack, and I'm much quicker than Percy. I make the decision to trust myself, even if I've only ever fought dummies and Katie with my knife.

I swing my sword in a wide arc causing Percy to back up hastily. I then drop the weapon and grab for the hilt of my dagger. By the time I straightened up Percy had recovered enough to move forward. He stalks closer, not saying anything about my using the same dagger I sunk into his leg during capture the flag.

When riptide sweeps towards my torso I'm ready for it and duck the ancient blade, then block Percy's incoming foot aimed at my head. I slice my own small blade across his knee and then roll sideways to avoid the butt of his sword slamming into my head. I push off the floor so that I land behind Percy and slice the back of his other knee before rolling back to the side of him.

The injuries to his knee do not deter him though and he quickly recovers and kicks out in my direction where I had half risen. His foot hits me right in the chest and I go sprawling back onto the floor.

I use the momentum to roll over my shoulder into a crouch and throw my dagger. It lodges in a gap in Percy's shoulder armour causing him to grunt in pain. The only problem now is that I'm weapon-less with my sword on the ground behind Percy.

"Right," I say before he can gloat, "You win."

"And what have we learnt from that little duel?" he asks, mocking the tone of a teacher.

I sigh angrily and reply, "To not get rid of weapons? To not spar with people that have an inhuman pain tolerance level?"

I can't believe he said "little duel", if I could I would kill him. I'm breathing like crazy here and it was less than five minutes long. He has my dagger sticking out of his shoulder and he's trying to give lessons.

"You know" he says, "There was no need for you to drop the sword, we could still be fighting now if you had just holstered it."

"Yeah right." I snort. The ghost of a smile tugs at his mouth.

"On the bright side, you can go back to training with your own cabin," Percy states.

"What? Why?" I ask. I enjoyed the allotted time away from Olivia.

Percy looks at me like I'm crazy, "Annabeth, do you not see how good you've become? Your great with a sword and so quick in hand-to-hand. And I didn't even know you were that good with your dagger. The rate you've learned all this is amazing. Even if you knew some self defence before hand."

I blush at the compliments, and surprisingly, when they come from Percy I believe them. Probably because I know that he wouldn't say something if he didn't mean it.

"But I couldn't beat you..." I say, grasping for reasons to stay.

"You've disarmed me twice." he says like it's obvious. He's also forgetting to mention how he then disarmed me literally with his bear hands and turned my own sword on me. I also forgot to tell him that the first time I disarmed him was an accident and I could not recreate it if I tried. The second time I was pleased with but I know that he's been going easy on me.

"Exactly... _twice_." I say, "Please don't make me go back to her." I try for puppy dog eyes but then remember who I am dealing with.

"You've got to," he explains, "Chiron asked me to train you, and you're trained. Plus, now that I know you can throw your dagger that well, I may be a bit scared for my safety."

"But you've been going easy on me!" I half-shout.

At this he smirks a bit, in an arrogant way. "I go easy on everyone, but I didn't go_ as_ easy on you."

I'm about to beg on my knees for him to let me stay when Connor Stoll rushes in, out of breath from running so hard.

"You're going to want to see this."he says looking directly at Percy. Myself and Percy look at each other, both bemused, before Percy hands me the dagger he had removed from his shoulder blade and takes off running after Connor.

Wanting to know what is going on, I follow.

* * *

By the time we reach the top of Half-blood hill, there is crowd of demi-gods muttering to each other. Percy pushes through them all and I follow in his wake. When the son of Poseidon reaches the front, he freezes, all the muscles in his body seeming to tense. Thinking something really bad is happening I clutch my dagger tighter and squeeze past Percy to the front.

I don't know what I was expecting to see, but it definitely wasn't an traumatised looking satyr in a rasta cap clutching what appeared to be a gold blanket. He was practically shaking in fear and I know in this time of war nobody can be trusted but he just looked too innocent to hurt anything. I take in his appearance and note that he has quite a few fresh cuts and bruises including a rather severe one to the leg.

Nobody was moving and Percy seemed to be in shock, so I stepped forward. The satyr's terrified eyes locked on mine and I offered him a smile. "Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena. Who are you?" I ask, keeping my face kind so as not to startle him.

The satyrs eyes sweep around the crowd, pausing on Percy for the longest time before returning his gaze to me. "Grover Underwood."

**please review guys, even if you hate it. I won't judge. Seriously though review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**You know I'm not one for long author notes so lets begin.**

Percy's Pov.

"Grover Underwood."

From the second I had seen him I had frozen. I couldn't bring myself to move anything. It was a wonder I had remembered to breathe properly. He just had to be a ghost right? He's been missing for years. None of the satyrs had heard even a whisper about him from what Trev said. I had barely registered Annabeth talking to him at all, but somehow, when he spoke his name I just snapped out of whatever stupor I was in.

I noticed the look of recognition flicker across Annabeth's face when he identified himself. So obviously she had heard about him, probably had something to do with her obsessive need to know everything that she gets from a certain immortal. She quickly masked the shock and continued.

"Well, come with me and we'll go get you some help." She said kindly, putting his arm around her shoulder so he could lean on her.

As soon as she tried to walk down the hill in the direction of the Big House, almost the whole crowd drew their weapons on the two of them.

"What are you doing?!"

"Are you crazy?"

"He could be working for Kronos!"

The crowd seems to have come collectively closer and Annabeth's dagger is out. I am honestly torn between two possibilities here. One: I want to get Annabeth away from Grover in case he is a traitor. On the other hand though, if Grover is innocent, then he's bleeding heavily and needs help.

I see Annabeth's brother Malcolm step forward to her side with Katie Gardner on the other. They both have their own weapons pointed at the crowd telling them to back up.

In that moment I choose a side and walk forward. I place myself right infront of Grover and Annabeth whilst uncapping Riptide. This seems to draw the crowd's attention and they all stop shouting almost at once.

"Let us through." I say calmly, pointing my sword at the people blocking the direction to the Big House.

For a moment the demi-gods in that portion of the crowd start to part but then of course Olivia opens her fucking mouth.

She comes out of the crowd and stands directly in front of us, acting all cocky in front of a crowd but we all know that if this was one on one she would be shaking with fear. "We are not going to be ordered around by you Jackson. Now hand over the traitor."

Just the fact that she has spoken up means that quite a substantial number of half-bloods have just sheathed their weapons. Unfortunately, even with a lot less opponents, we're still outnumbered, and Annabeth can't fight with Grover leaning so heavily on her.

Luckily, Chiron has impeccable timing. "What is going on here?" he demands.

The cluster of demi-gods parts for him and he raises his eyebrows at the five of us in the centre of the congregation. Obviously taking in our fighting stances he isn't pleased so I step side-ways to let him see our satyr friend and his jaw drops for a second.

He seems to shake himself out of the shock and proceeds calmly, "Grover?"

The one in question is too weak by now using all his energy standing up and clutching that golden mess of fabric so he merely nods. He does however whisper something in Annabeth's ear before proceeding to faint.

Grover falls sideways taking Annabeth down with him. Myself and Malcolm rush to pick him up and an Apollo kid hurries forward. However when we try to start to move him Annabeth starts shouting at us.

"No! Stop! Please." She cries out urgently. Seeing the desperation in her face we slowly lower him onto the ground beside her. Annabeth grabs the bundle of golden fabric from Grover's bloody hands. I note that even though blood should be on the material, there is not a trace of any to be found. She continues to cover Grover with the Golden blanket like she's tucking him into bed. Almost immediately the whole blanket thing starts to glow.

Campers gasp and back up but I hear a startled gasp come from Chiron. Annabeth addresses the old centaur directly, "He told me to cover him with it. Is it what I think it is? Is it the-"

"Golden fleece." Chiron says gravely, "Yes."

Not many of the campers seemed to know what that was, but I could tell it registered with a few. I'm surprised Annabeth even knew what it was after so little time here, but then again she is a daughter of Athena after all.

I look down at the unconscious face of my old friend and am surprised to see that the scratches and bruises have completely gone. All that left is dried blood. I look at his leg wound and am slightly repulsed to see it getting smaller and some of the blood running back into the gash.

"Percy, Annabeth," Chiron got our attention, "Get Mr Underwood into the Big House. Katie.. if you could please bring the fleece."

Katie takes the fleece ahead while myself and Annabeth puts one of Grovers around our shoulders each and basically drag Grover down the hill. As we're leaving I hear Chiron dispersing the crowd and Olivia complaining that we can't trust Grover.

I still don't trust him either, but I wasn't going to let Annabeth get hurt just for being a nice person. As much as I tell her we shouldn't be friends, she's still the only person I ever talk to in this camp. Rachel isn't aloud in because she's a mortal and Trev is off looking for demi-gods. And just because I don't want to get too close to Annabeth, doesn't mean I don't like her. I just don't expect to be around much longer and don't want another Percy missing me or worse; dead because they were my friend.

We haul Grover into the house and lay him on the sofa just as Chiron trots in. Katie is just stood awkwardly with the Golden Fleece obviously not knowing what to do with it.

"Ahh children, does anyone mind filling in the details I missed with that scene outside?"

* * *

"I thought I might find you hear."

I whip around at the sound to see Annabeth strolling up the beach towards me a small smile on her face. I'm struck again suddenly by how beautiful she is, with the sun glinting in her hair which is down for once, and those grey eyes piercing me. I turn away so that I don't stare or do anything stupid.

In training I can repress these feelings and just see her as an opponent. I don't _like_ her or anything, at least I don't think so. But unfortunately I'm a guy and she's something for the Gods to envy.

She comes and takes a seat next to me on the sand, a few metres back from the water. "You want to talk about it?"

I know exactly what she's talking about but of course I'm not going to admit to being upset about today. "There's nothing to talk about."

She crunches up her face in confusion, "I would think that if my best friend went missing and then turned up years later, I would probably have some sort of reaction."

"Annabeth," I sigh, "I don't want to talk about it okay?"

She just smiles, "Well talk about something else then."

I roll my eyes and fight the smile threatening to appear. If she wants to annoy me then I'll annoy her.

"So tell me, why aren't you melting yet?" she gives me a weird look, "I thought children of Athena are all allergic to water."

now she scowls, " We are not _allergic. _Your father is the reason we don't like water. Well actually I don't mind it, my dad insisted on giving me swimming lessons because we lived in California. Never actually went in the sea though." Annabeth shrugs at the end, but eyes the water with suspicion.

I however am still reeling from her last sentence. "You've never been in the sea? Like ever?"

She shrugs again, "I guess it's just one of them demi-god instinct things? Like how Katie knows a plants just from looking. Or how my whole cabin are terrified of spiders."

I tilt my head, looking at her but she looks down in embarrassment her cheeks colouring because she just admitted being scared of something.

"Why are you scared of spiders? I mean I know they like follow children of Athena but can't you just squash them?" I ask.

Her face turns darker at the last question, "You cant 'just squash them' when they're swarming your body night after night. I almost ran away when I was seven because no one believed what I was saying. They still don't believe it happened, the bites would fade before morning." I notice her fingers are digging into the sand like it's an anchor and have the urge to take one just so she doesn't feel so helpless. But I don't, because I can't.

"Sorry," she says, snapping back from wherever she was, "I don't mean to unload on you like that when I came to talk about you."

I shake my head, "No, I like hearing that someone else has demi-god issues. Not that I'm glad you have issues." I splutter after.

Annabeth laughs, completely care free and I relish in the sound. When I look back though, she's serious. "I don't think anything I've gone through will ever compare to what you have and will go through." she says looking straight into my eyes.

So there it is, she knows about the prophecy, the reason I can't be her friend. Because she'll become a target. Rachel and Trev won't be because they won't be there for the fighting, but something tells me that if there's a battle, Annabeth will be right in the thick of it.

Her voice snaps me out of my thoughts, "I read it you know." she says.I look at her indifferently, wondering where this is going. She continues, "And nowhere in the prophecy did it say that you should isolate yourself," she gives me a pointed look, "I also looked up past prophecies, and the exact wording doesn't always mean what it looks like."

"Not always but this one was pretty clear." I counter.

"Were the words Percy Jackson used? No." she snaps, "I think that you don't want to hope that you'll live, and so you exclude yourself so that you won't miss people. I also think that if there was no hope at all, then you wouldn't have bothered training all these years."

I stay quiet, because after a month, she already knows me well.

"Percy, I see the pain in your eyes when you sit on your own at meals and I see saw how sad you looked when you said we couldn't be friends. And I'm going to tell you now that I am your friend whether you like it or not. When this inevitable fight does happen, I will be fighting by your side." Throughout her speech she had tried to catch my eye to no avail.

"Annabeth-" I begin but she cuts me off."

"No don't you 'Annabeth' me." she huffs angrily, "This is my choice, not yours. If I want to be your friend I will, and if I get put in danger because of that choice, then so be it." her face is set so that I know there is no arguing.

"Okay but if you die, it's your own fault." I sulk. Annabeth just giggles at me making me stick my bottom lip out. Unfortunately this just makes her laugh harder.

"What are you? Five?" she laughs.

Having enough I suddenly stand up and pick her up bridal style, walking towards the water. Seeiing where I'm going, Annabeth kicks and squirms but I just continue on. When I'm knee hight I drop her and take off sprinting towards the camp laughing freely for the first time in a long while.

All I hear from behind me, is:

"PERCY JACKSON! YOU. ARE. DEAD."

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